Everlasting
by Project 0506
Summary: Art is a bang, Deidara always knew.  But for once he wished that just this one thing would have lasted forever.  Set after the Rescue Gaara Arc


If I were Kishimoto-sama

1) This wouldn't be a fan fic

2) I would draw it

3) Haku would be alive, female, and Naruto's ever-grateful servant.

Unfortunately... I'm not Kishimoto-sama... just a rabid fan. So I do not own. Let us all mourn.

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"Are you comfortable Sasori-danna?" Deidara murmured against the wooden face. Long, nimble fingers curled upwards and buried themselves in the blood red hair. He chuckled, a dry, frightening sound exploding from between his pale lips. He rocked the small frame with uncharacteristic gentleness, yet no matter how hard he pressed his ear to it or how long he listened, no human heart beat in the hollow of the red-head's chest.

"I believe you now, un," he declared, suddenly pulling back and stalking around the room. "I understand now. Some art was meant to last forever." He glanced over at his partner still leaning against the wall. "Well?" He glared, putting his hands on his lips. "Aren't you going to yell at me un? Call me baka? Say I'm annoying un?"

With lethal grace he returned, pulling his finally unresisting partner into his arms. "Won't you talk to me Danna un?" His blond hair spilled down his shoulders and brushed the former Suna-nin's chest. "Don't you think I say too much? Don't you want to tell me to shut up?" His breath dusted a light mist across the perfect, everlasting face. Twin tongues darted out from his palms and slid across a smooth pale neck. There was still no response.

Deidara's eyes narrowed, and his lip curled up to a snarl. "Will you stay quiet un?" he breathed, a voice reserved for those he wanted to suffer. "Then dance." A sweeping hand indicated the puppets lined up around the room. "Dance with them like you used to. Make them flow with your fingers un."

But Akasuna no Sasori remained obstinately still.

"_DANCE!_" Deidara screamed and leapt to his feet, scope in his left eye whirring furiously. Shimmering trickles of pure chakra flowed from his hands, winding down the threads that bound him to his partner. The puppet-master twitched. Deidara yanked the strings again, pulling the man to his feet and holding him there for a moment. Slowly the wooden body began to move in grotesque circular jerks. Droplets of blood bubbled to the surface of Deidara's hands where threads sliced smoothly into fingers made for clay.

"No," he whispered desperately. "It's not beautiful un. No." He shivered. "I can't make it beautiful like you could un."

He ripped the threads away, and the wooden body crashed forward with a sickening thud.

A guttural cry tore through the Akatsuki base, in perfect harmony with the roar of explosions. Leader-sama glanced expressionlessly around what was once the puppet-master's workroom.

"Get Tobi," he ordered quietly, and Zetsu immediately moved to obey. "We cannot afford to have him make himself a liability." Ash and debris coated the room, smothering the warm scent of wood with the bitter of sulfur. Kakuzu would be crapping kittens for a month over this. Then again, who would have thought Deidara would dig up the puppet-master's body?

"That bastard." Deidara grinned up at the leader. "That damn bastard. How dare he leave me alone when I still have something to tell him?" He burst out into raucous, uncontrollable laughter. "How ..dare that…f!$&ing bastard leave me here alone un?! How the hell?" He snatched up the charred pieces of Sasori's greatest masterpiece and shook it until the damaged joints snapped and left only the head in his grip. "How the hell am I supposed to tell you now un? Leave me alone." The latter was directed at Tobi who now crouched next to him.

"Deidara-sempai-"

I said leave me alone un!"

Tobi's hands closed over the artist's, and Deidara found it impossible to pull them away. Forcefully Tobi pried the bleeding fingers loose, and the remains of a perfect face slid to the ground. "Deidara-sempai. Tobi needs Sempai to look at him." Tobi moved to put himself between his sempai and Sasori's face, forcing the blond to look at him. Carefully he lifted his mask, and azure eyes met spinning crimson. Somehow, although he wasn't moving, Deidara felt himself falling into that swirl of black and red. Why was it that he felt like someone was pulling a huge piece of his heart out of him? He tried to yell, to look away, but bit by bit something cracked.

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"Damn annoying brat un," Deidara swore.

"Tobi is a good boy!" Tobi insisted.

"Tobi is a moron." Deidara spun to face him. "I said go _left_ un. I can understand you accidentally going right. But how the hell did you get left to mean up un?"

"But Sempai was on the birdie! Sempai's left was higher than Tobi's!"

Deidara's fingers twitched with the urge to squeeze Tobi's neck until he turned blue under that mask of his.

"Looks like you're getting along." Kisame snickered.

"I have an idea un. Why don't you work with him?" The water-master held up his hands in an 'it's all yours' gesture.

"Wouldn't want to steal your fun." He laughed again while Deidara murmured several unsavory things about good boys' mothers. "So, he's replacing Sa- I mean, you're partners now?"

The blond sniffed. "Unfortunately. I'll bet Sasori-danna is laughing his damn head off in the afterlife un. Spiteful bastard, did it on purpose un!"

Kisame watched the renegade rock nin suspiciously, and beside him he knew Itachi was doing the same.

"Hey, you doing alright?"

Deidara shrugged noncommittally. "Breaking in a new partner is harder than I thought un. Oi, _BAKA_! Don't drop it un!" Tobi responded by nearly dropping the statue anyway.

"I think," Kisame muttered watching as Deidara threatened and pounded on his new partner for trying to destroy one of his masterpieces. "I think he's even better at hiding his feelings that you are."

"Iie," Itachi replied in his normal monotone. "He really has recovered."

The shark-man whistled. "That was fast. Been what, a week?"

The Uchiha prodigy watched the bouncing idiot trying to escape Deidara's mini exploding birds, and his eyes narrowed. Subconsciously his hands clenched, every nerve of his body screaming a warning. That boy was not to be underestimated. "He had help."

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"Ano, sempai?"

"What do you want un?"

"What was it sempai wanted to tell him?" Deidara glanced over crossly.

"Tell who?"

"Sempai said he wanted to tell Sasori-san something but Sempai never got a chance to."

The blonde's face dissolved into a look of total confusion. "Eh? When did I say that un?"

Tobi seemed to be grinning behind his mask. "Never mind sempai! It was probably a dream." Deidara set off one of his works of art right next to the orange-masked boy's head.

_Yet, as he curls up in the bed his last partner never needed, he can't help but feel as though he's forgotten something important_.


End file.
